Firemen take part in a demonstration of Italian trade unions Cobas and Usb against austerity measures and European politics. Thousands of people protested against economic austerity in Rome today as partial transport strikes across the country cancelled dozens of flights and snarled buses and trains.

Members of trade union Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia walk during a protest in the business district in Jakarta. Almost 1,000 workers participated in the protest, demanding wage raises and objecting to outsourcing, according to local media on Thursday.

Employees of the French chemical group Kem One demonstrate in the streets of Lyon on Thursday as the city’s commercial court examined their situation. The 1,300 staff of Kem One, placed into receivership since March 27, were due to be informed about potential buyers and their restructuring projects but the court delayed its final decision until December 12.

Protesters chant slogans and carry a banner reading “No”, during a rally organised by Greece’s Adedy main public sector union in Athens on Thursday. Hundreds of state employees took part in the rally and held a four-hour work stoppage to protest against planned mandatory public sector employee transfers and suspensions as part of the government’s austerity drive

Construction workers wear face masks to protect them from a heavy smoke haze, as they perform morning exercises at the start of their shift in Singapore on Thursday. The city state’s air quality deteriorated to “hazardous” levels late on Wednesday as it was enveloped in smoke from slash-and-burn land clearing in Indonesia, which has inflamed tensions between the Southeast Asian neighbours.

Bangladeshi garment workers employed at Rana Plaza, the garment factory building that collapsed, stand in a queue to receive wages in Savar near Dhaka, Bangladesh on Wednesday. Dozens of bodies recovered Wednesday from the building were so decomposed they were being sent to a lab for DNA identification, police said, as the death toll from Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster topped 800

Pakistani labourers work at an iron factory in Karachi on the eve of International Labour Day. Pakistan has a workforce of around 56m people among a population of 179m, according to Pakistan’s official figures compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

A group of Chinese workers have lunch by a road in Beijing on April 16 2013. Growth in China slowed to 7.7 per cent in the first quarter, data showed on April 15, below forecasts and fuelling fears that a recent pick-up in the world’s second-largest economy is faltering on weak overseas demand.